SEATTLE — United States manager Maurico Pochettino said Thursday that star attacker Christian Pulisic is doing “much better” in terms of the injury to his left calf but will be assessed by the medical staff later in the day to determine his availability to play against Australia on Friday.
Speaking to reporters during his pregame news conference, Pochettino added that Pulisic might not be able to recover in time for Friday’s match but is doing everything he can to be fit.
“I think tonight, or the day before the game, we have a meeting with our medical area and we will assess the whole group, the players, and tomorrow we will communicate and see all the things that [we] can agree [on] tonight,” Pochettino said. “He’s evolving. He’s much better from Friday. We’ll see. I think at the moment, if we see he’s not available for tomorrow, he will be available for the next game.
“I think he’s doing a massive effort trying to be ready. I think for every single player that love their country it’s an amazing opportunity to know, to enjoy and to help the team to perform and to win games. When this type of thing happens, always is painful, but I think Christian is strong and with great mentality and is doing a fantastic effort to try to be ready as soon as possible.”
If Pulisic can’t go, Pochettino will likely select his replacement from a group that includes Brenden Aaronson, Giovanni Reyna, Timothy Weah and Alejandro Zendejas.
“We are evaluating all the possibilities, just in case, and then we will decide when we have the confirmation in one or another direction tonight,” Pochettino said.
With just over 24 hours to go until the U.S. kicks off against Australia in World Cup Group D play, Pulisic walked into practice Thursday to join a pre-warmup huddle with a wrap around his ailing left calf, accompanied by performance and medical staffers and then went to the gym and did not train with teammates.
Pulisic first injured the calf last week in training and was forced off at halftime of the USMNT’s World Cup-opening win over Paraguay when he aggravated the injury. He did do some field work Wednesday, which was an improvement over previous sessions, but it was unclear whether he continued to progress Thursday.
Teammate Weston McKennie was the latest USMNT player to profess ignorance over Pulisic’s condition, but he sounded hopeful the attacker could play.
“I’m more just the energy guy, you know, either way, just trying to get good spirits and hopefully [Pulisic] can be there tomorrow,” McKennie told reporters before Thursday’s session.
“I know he really wants to be and he’s doing everything that he can and the staff is doing everything that they can as well.”
